Chemical Fingerprint and Source Identification of Atmospheric Fine Particles Sampled at Three Environments at the Tip of Southern Taiwan

Abstract

The spatiotemporal variation, chemical fingerprints, transportation routes, and source apportionment of atmospheric fine particles (PM 2.5 ) along the coastal region of southern Taiwan were investigated at three environments in the tip of southern Taiwan. Three representative sampling sites at Chien-Chin (urban site), Siao-Gang (industrial site) and Che-Cheng (background site) were selected for simultaneous PM 2.5 sampling from December 2014 to May 2015. Regular sampling of 24-h PM 2.5 was conducted for continuous 6-9 days in each month. After sampling, the chemical composition, including water-soluble ions, metallic elements and the carbonaceous content of PM 2.5 , was further analyzed within two weeks. The levoglucosan concentration was further compared to OC and K + in PM 2.5 originating from biomass burning. Moreover, the potential sources of PM 2.5 and their respective contribution were further resolved by backward trajectory simulation, combined with chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor modeling. The field sampling results indicated that the PM 2.5 concentrations at the urban and industrial sites were always higher than those at the background site. The most abundant water-soluble ionic species of PM 2.5 are SO 4 2-, NO 3 -and NH 4 + , implying that PM 2.5 is mainly composed of secondary ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. The most abundant metallic elements of PM 2.5 included crustal elements (Al, Fe and Ca) and anthropogenic (generated by humans) elements (V, Ni, As, Cd, Zn and Pb). Moreover, the concentrations of OC and EC at the Chien-Chin and Siao-Gang sites were generally higher than those at the Che-Cheng site, mainly due to the emissions from urban and industrial anthropogenic sources. Vehicular exhausts and industrial emissions were the main sources of PM 2.5 at the Chien-Chin and Siao-Gang sites, respectively, while biomass burning and soil dusts were the dominant sources of PM 2.5 at the Che-Cheng site.

Temporal Variations in the Air Quality Index and the Impact of the COVID-19 Event on Air Quality in Western China

“…Previous research investigated the relationship between air pollutants and human health (Pope and Dochery, 2006;Cao et al, 2012;Heal et al, 2012;Pope and Dochery, 2013;Jin et al, 2017). Studies have shown that inhaling PM 2.5 can cause pneumonia and that it can dissolve in the bloodstream and cause heart and reproductive system diseases (Yang et al, 2017). PM 10 also has a significant impact on the mortality related to cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases (Abe et al, 2018).…”

Effects of Seasonality and Transport Route on Chemical Characteristics of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 in the East Asian Pacific Rim Region

“…Yang et al (2017) also showed that PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratios were mostly higher than 0.5 in southern Taiwan. By contrast, the PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio was 0.26 for SdeBoker, an arid area, and it ranged from 0.6 to 0.80 for European and Western Mediterranean sites (Andreae et al, 2002).…”

“…Detailed information regarding the trajectory model and these data sets can be found on the NOAA Web site (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/re ady/hysplit4.html). This type of analysis has been widely applied in the environmental sciences; for instances, to investigate the long-range transport of pollutants and to establish the source-receptor relationships of air pollutants (Stohl, 1998;Xin et al, 2016;Ommi et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2017). Different air masses travel through different regions and therefore bring different chemical constituents with them, leading to different air quality characteristics in downwind areas (Abdalmogith and Harrison, 2005;Wang et al, 2006b;Kong et al, 2010).…”

Temporal variation and potential origins of atmospheric speciated mercury at a remote island in South China Sea based on two-year field measurement data

“…During the burning processes, levoglucosan was formed as an intermediate product which can be used as an indicator of biomass burning since cellulose was the main component of plant xylem. Moreover, K + has also been characterized as another valuable indicator of biomass burning since K + is highly abundant in the plant tissues 43 . The seasonal variation of levoglucosan concentration in PM 2.5 sampled at the Taiping Island is shown in Table S1 and Fig.…”